Still Remembering the Kanji

Students who have sought out information about teaching themselves Kanji the Heisig way with Remembering the Kanji will probably have met one or more objections to the method.

1) You waste time studying dead kanji with silly mnemonics but sounds. You know 2042 stupid stories that you have no use for when you are done.

2) All the repetition you do could have been spent better repeating vocabulary instead.

3) Heisig's order of learning kanji is completely off the charts. You learn difficult ones too fast, and save needed ones for last.

4) The best way to learn japanese kanji is to use them in context. So learn lots of words and they will come to you.

5) You must learn japanese by doing everything at once, focusing on one bit will automatically lead to neglect of the rest. Grammar, conversation, reading, writing, kanji etc. all hangs together.
6) Silly stories in your head is waste of effort in learning japanese.

I was partially agreeing with the first argument for a while. But taking a japanese course in addition to my kanji studies did reveal one benefit. when meeting words, I often knew a bit about what they meant even before I could read them out loud. The more I progressed, the easier it became to tie meaning and sound to the kanji. At this stage you must rely on pure memorization power.

Also, you cannot skip ahead and mix book 1 and book 2. Heisig system is rather orthodox in its unorthodoxy here: Do as you are told, or fail.

Now argument 2, the repetition, actually is a great convenience today. I have a rock solid repetition scheme running in SuperMemo 2004, and adding vocabulary to that is a walk in the park. The useless mnemonics from argument 1 is a boon. They don't stick for ever, you know, they are replaced by mere recognition. And I gained a valuable insight in how my mind works which I use for further studies.

The order of the kanjis can be a problem if you are too slow working through the book. I spent around 7 months from start to finish of this book. Too long by a month or two, but I managed to complete it before I finished my japanese course. I would say you should really strive to complete the book in 3-4 months. Then the order of the kanji will be a small problem. Story sharing is essential to complete the book fast for most people. So do it in context of some online community or with your japanese co students.

Now, Ive been told by many how you learn japanese best. context, do it all and it sticks. It is probably very japanese way of thinking. Do everything a lot of times and you become a master. Notice how everything takes 10 year in Japan? Sushi chefs are educated for 10 years before they are masters. Karate champions toil for 10 years before they are masters. Virtuoso musicians played till they bled for 10 years. Etc. etc. Wax on, wax off - 1000 times, Daniel-san.

Now, in my country we are probably too scared of repetition nowadays. Its hard work and boring, and viewed as an inferior learning method. It has its merits. But trying to repeat all aspects of the language at once leads to disorganization, at least for me. If you are dragged screaming through a rigorious university course or other, you might not notice that. But doing japanese on your own it is an essential way to do it.Because the Heisig method has one super benefit: It slices out one particular, troublesome aspect of the chaotic mess that it is to be learning japanese and puts it into a rigig system. There is a method, a clear chart of the work ahead of you that builds upon the work you previously did.

Not only is it a huge morale boost when you do complete the book, you also can continue with RTK2 and KanjiTown method to make further progress. Your silly little mnemonics and stories are suddenly turning into powerful silver bullets for building stories that ties memorization and places into sound. All this while you dabble in conversation, grammar and reading of canned text. If you thought the idea presented in RTK1 was smart, you have NO idea what wonders lie in wait for you when you begin kanjitown approach with RTK2.

And the really powerful bit is that you know how to draw just about every kanji there is, almost correctly, since you are intimately familiar with the elements and meaning of them without having to write each kanji 1000 times. You are no ワープロ馬鹿 who is unable to get by without IME. But do not expect your hand written kanji to impress anyone. It takes careful calligraphy classes (10 years!) to really be able to write kanji beautifully.


As someone mentioned on the kanji boards, finishing RTK has made him ask himself what other "Impossible things can I can accomplish."